See also: Intensive care medicine
In 1854, Florence Nightingale left for the Crimean War, where triage was used to separate seriously wounded soldiers from those with non-life-threatening conditions. Florence provided several simple but powerful interventions: a clean environment, medical equipment, clean water, and fruits.3 With this work, the mortality rate decreased from 60% to 42% and then to 2.2%45
In response to a polio epidemic (where many patients required constant ventilation and surveillance), Bjørn Aage Ibsen established the first intensive care unit globally in Copenhagen in 1953.67
The first application of this idea in the United States was in 1951 by Dwight Harken. Harken's concept of intensive care has been adopted worldwide and has improved the chance of survival for patients. He opened the first intensive care unit in 1951. In the 1960s, he developed the first device to help the heart pump. He also implanted artificial aortic and mitral valves. He continued to pioneer in surgical procedures for operating on the heart. He established and worked in several organizations related to the heart.
In 1955, William Mosenthal, a surgeon at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center also opened an early intensive care unit.8 In the 1960s, the importance of cardiac arrhythmias as a source of morbidity and mortality in myocardial infarctions (heart attacks) was recognized. This led to the routine use of cardiac monitoring in ICUs, especially after heart attacks.9
Hospitals may have various specialized ICUs that cater to a specific medical requirement or patient:
Common equipment in an ICU includes mechanical ventilators to assist breathing through an endotracheal tube or a tracheostomy tube; cardiac monitors for monitoring cardiac condition; equipment for the constant monitoring of bodily functions; a web of intravenous lines, feeding tubes, nasogastric tubes, suction pumps, drains, and catheters, syringe pumps; and a wide array of drugs to treat the primary condition(s) of hospitalization. Medically induced comas, analgesics, and induced sedation are common ICU tools needed and used to reduce pain and prevent secondary infections.
Main article: Burn recovery bed
The available data suggests a relation between ICU volume and quality of care for mechanically ventilated patients.11 After adjustment for severity of illnesses, demographic variables, and characteristics of different ICUs (including staffing by intensivists), higher ICU staffing was significantly associated with lower ICU and hospital mortality rates. A ratio of 2 patients to 1 nurse is recommended for a medical ICU, which contrasts to the ratio of 4:1 or 5:1 typically seen on medical floors. This varies from country to country, though; e.g., in Australia and the United Kingdom, most ICUs are staffed on a 2:1 basis (for high-dependency patients who require closer monitoring or more intensive treatment than a hospital ward can offer) or on a 1:1 basis for patients requiring extreme intensive support and monitoring; for example, a patient on multiple vasoactive medications to keep their blood pressure high enough to perfuse tissue. The patient may require multiple machines; Examples: continuous dialysis CRRT, a intra-aortic balloon pump, ECMO.
International guidelines recommend that every patient gets checked for delirium every day (usually twice or as much required) using a validated clinical tool. The two most widely used are the Confusion Assessment Method for the ICU (CAM-ICU) and the Intensive Care Delirium Screening Checklist (ICDSC). There are translations of these tools in over 20 languages and they are used globally in many ICU's.12 Nurses are the largest group of healthcare professionals working in ICUs. There are findings which have demonstrated that nursing leadership styles have impact on ICU quality measures 13 particularly structural and outcomes measures.
In the United States, up to 20% of hospital beds can be labelled as intensive-care beds; in the United Kingdom, intensive care usually will comprise only up to 2% of total beds. This high disparity is attributed to admission of patients in the UK only when considered the most severely ill.14
Intensive care is an expensive healthcare service. A recent study conducted in the United States found that hospital stays involving ICU services were 2.5 times more costly than other hospital stays.15
In the United Kingdom in 2003–04, the average cost of funding an intensive care unit was:16
Some hospitals have installed teleconferencing systems that allow doctors and nurses at a central facility (either in the same building, at a central location serving several local hospitals, or in rural locations another more urban facility) to collaborate with on-site staff and speak with patients (a form of [telemedicine]). This is variously called an eICU, virtual ICU, or tele-ICU. Remote staff typically have access to vital signs from live monitoring systems, and electronic health records so they may have access to a broader view of a patient's medical history. Often bedside and remote staff have met in person and may rotate responsibilities. Such systems are beneficial to intensive care units in order to ensure correct procedures are being followed for patients vulnerable to deterioration, to access vital signs remotely in order to keep patients that would have to be transferred to a larger facility if need be he/she may have demonstrated a significant decrease in stability.17181920
Marshall, John C., et al. "What is an intensive care unit? A report of the task force of the World Federation of Societies of Intensive and Critical Care Medicine." Journal of critical care 37 (2017): 270-276. ↩
Smith, S. E. (2013-03-24). Bronwyn Harris (ed.). "What is an ICU". wiseGEEK. Sparks, Nevada: Conjecture Corporation. Retrieved 2012-06-15. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-an-icu.htm ↩
Nightingale F. Florence Nightingale. Cassandra: an essay. 1979. Am J Public Health. 2010;100(9):1586– ↩
Velioglu, P. "Concepts and theories in nursing." Alas Ofset, Istanbul (1999): 37-48. ↩
Karimi, Hosein, and Negin Masoudi Alavi. "Florence Nightingale: The mother of nursing." Nursing and midwifery studies 4.2 (2015). ↩
Reisner-Sénélar, L. (2009), "Der dänische Anästhesist Björn Ibsen ein Pionier der Langzeitbeatmung über die oberen Luftwege", Doctoral Thesis (in German), Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, OCLC 600186486. English translation of introduction. http://d-nb.info/999147323/34 ↩
Reisner-Sénélar, L. (2009). "The Danish anaesthesiologist was a pioneer of long-term ventilation on the upper airways" (PDF).[dead link] https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/The%20Danish%20anaesthesiologist%20Bj%C3%B6rn%20Ibsen%2C%20Louise%20Reisner-S%C3%A9n%C3%A9lar%2C%202009.pdf?w=a25aff0a ↩
Grossman, D.C. (Spring 2004). "Vital Signs: Remembering Dr. William Mosenthal: A simple idea from a special surgeon". Dartmouth Medicine. 28 (3). Retrieved 2007-04-10. http://dartmed.dartmouth.edu/spring04/html/vs_mosenthal.shtml ↩
"História da Terapia Intensiva" [Intensive Care History] (video in English linked to from website). Brazilian Society of Critical Care website. Produced by Tfran Ediçao de Imagens. Uploaded to YouTube by user: Thiago Francisco. 2008-06-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CF21OwIrS_M ↩
"Intensive Care Patients Experiences: High Dependency Units", healthtalkonline.org, Oxford, England: DIPEx, November 2012, archived from the original (compiled patient testimonials) on 2013-03-28, retrieved 2012-04-10 https://web.archive.org/web/20130328144912/http://www.healthtalkonline.org/intensive_care/Intensive_care_Patients_experiences/Topic/1217 ↩
Kahn, J.M.; Goss, C.H.; Heagerty, P.J.; Kramer, A.A.; et al. (2006-07-06). "Hospital volume and the outcomes of mechanical ventilation". New England Journal of Medicine. 355 (1): 41–50. doi:10.1056/NEJMsa053993. PMID 16822995. https://doi.org/10.1056%2FNEJMsa053993 ↩
Ely, EW; et al. (2001-12-05). "Delirium in mechanically ventilated patients: validity and reliability of the confusion assessment method for the intensive care unit (CAM-ICU)". JAMA. 286 (21): 2703–10. doi:10.1001/jama.286.21.2703. hdl:10818/12438. PMID 11730446. https://doi.org/10.1001%2Fjama.286.21.2703 ↩
Kiwanuka, Frank; Nanyonga, Rose Clarke; Sak-Dankosky, Natalia; Muwanguzi, Patience A.; Kvist, Tarja (2021). "Nursing leadership styles and their impact on intensive care unit quality measures: An integrative review". Journal of Nursing Management. 29 (2): 133–142. doi:10.1111/jonm.13151. ISSN 0966-0429. PMID 32881169. https://doi.org/10.1111%2Fjonm.13151 ↩
Bennett, D.; Bion, J. (1999). "Organisation of intensive care". BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.). 318 (7196): 1468–70. doi:10.1136/bmj.318.7196.1468. PMC 1115845. PMID 10346777. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1115845 ↩
Barrett ML, Smith MW, Elizhauser A, Honigman LS, Pines JM (December 2014). "Utilization of Intensive Care Services, 2011". HCUP Statistical Brief (185). Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. PMID 25654157. https://www.hcup-us.ahrq.gov/reports/statbriefs/sb185-Hospital-Intensive-Care-Units-2011.jsp ↩
Winterton, R. (2005-06-15), "Written Answers text: Trent Strategic Health Authority", Hansard – House of Commons Debates, vol. 435, part 87, column 520W, Westminster, England: Stationery Office, Parliament, archived from the original on 2011-06-05, retrieved 2009-01-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20110605030213/http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/vo050615/text/50615w38.htm#50615w38.html_spnew6 ↩
"Hospitals Monitor ICU Patients Virtually, From Many Miles Away". WFAE. 2013-05-06. Retrieved 2017-03-16. http://wfae.org/post/hospitals-monitor-icu-patients-virtually-many-miles-away ↩
"Tele-ICU: Efficacy and Cost-Effectiveness of Remotely Managing Critical Care | Perspectives". Perspectives.ahima.org. 2014-06-20. Archived from the original on 2017-02-28. Retrieved 2017-03-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20170228104332/http://perspectives.ahima.org/tele-icu-efficacy-and-cost-effectiveness-of-remotely-managing-critical-care/#.Vzo3vJ6j7eQ ↩
"Emerging Best Practices for Tele-ICU Care". CHCF.org. Retrieved 2017-03-16. http://www.chcf.org/publications/2014/01/teleicu-care ↩
Goran, Susan F. (1 August 2010). "A Second Set of Eyes: An Introduction to Tele-ICU". Crit Care Nurse. 30 (4): 46–55. doi:10.4037/ccn2010283. PMID 20675821. S2CID 43905861. /wiki/Doi_(identifier) ↩